The Kings starting to look familiar, circa 2012

Mark J. Terrill / The Associated Press
The Kings' Trevor Lewis, left, battles the Ducks' Francois Beauchemin on Monday at Honda Center in their Stanley Cup playoff game. The Kings won, 3-1, and lead the series 2-0.

These Kings are looking vaguely familiar.

A little like those 2012 Kings who won the Stanley Cup.

There are too many signs to ignore. The Kings have all the tangible parts — a stout defense, stingy goaltender and timely goals. Then there’s always a little luck involved.

On Monday, the Kings scored 34 seconds into the game, and held on for a 3-1 win over the Ducks at the Honda Center.

“It’s very early,” Kings captain Dustin Brown said. “We’ll focus on Game 3. Everyone wants to talk about 2012. That team, and the way we went through the playoffs, it’s very hard to expect that at any point in the future.”

Not a 16-4 run to a Stanley Cup, no. But the Kings are hitting a similar groove.

The Kings have now won six consecutive games and four road games in a row.

You’ve heard this type of storyline before.

The Kings went on an eight-game win streak in 2012 en route to the Stanley Cup.

This is certainly not the same pattern in that they were nearly finished in the first round of the Western Conference playofs, but they rallied from a 3-0 deficit to knock off San Jose. Only three other teams in the history of the NHL have done that in a seven-game series.

In Game 1 of the conference semifinals against the Ducks, the Kings’ Marian Gaborik scored with just seven seconds left to send the game into overtime. Then Gaborik scored again in overtime to give the Kings a 3-2 win and lead in the series.

On Monday, Gaborik scored just 34 seconds into the game. He got behind the Ducks’ lagging defense for his third consecutive goal, dating back to Game 1. Gaborik has 25 points in 28 games since joining the Kings in March.

That’s called impactful.

And this is called familiar.

Alec Martinez scored what was the eventual game-winner at 9:40 in the first period. Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick made 36 saves. And the Kings did what they do best.

“I dont know. (coach) Darryl (Sutter) stresses no one has to be great. everyone just has to be good,” said Martinez. “We’re getting big plays out of a lot of different guys.”

Kings fans have made themselves right at home at the Honda Center, too. After Gaborik’s goal they taunted Hiller with “Hilllll-er!” chants. They were so loud they couldn’t be ignored. The Ducks sure had to feel bad that happened in their house.

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Of course, Ducks fans can return the favor by showing up in droves at Games 3 and 4 in Los Angeles. The only problem is that the Kings play well there, too.

“It doesn’t even feel like being on the road,” Sutter said of games at the Honda Center. “We’ve played really good in this building during the regular season. It was the same (Monday).”

Quick is making spectacular save after spectacular save. He’s in the playoff groove, although he didn’t start the postseason that way. He gave up 13 goals in the first two games against San Jose, but now he’s found his inner Conn Smythe.

“He was pretty good, but if you don’t get traffic in front of him and you don’t get to the net, you’re not going to score,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said of Quick. “There were no second chances. You’ve got to get to the dirty, greasy goals that we got all year.”

Anze Kopitar has been in top postseason form, much like he was in 2012, and he has at least one point in all nine of the Kings’ postseason games.

Gaborik was acquired in a midseason trade in March. The Kings had a big trade en route to the Stanley Cup when general manager Dean Lombardi made the big splash with the Jeff Carter trade in February of 2012.. Gaborik is the new Carter.

“Seems to be the Kings are playing kind of the way they played (in 2012) but they didn’t have some of the injuries they did then,” Kings broadcaster Bob Miller said before Monday’s game. “At the deadline, Dean Lombardi gets Marian Gaborik, whose had a great career and fits right in. In 2012, the Kings won 10 straight road games in the playoffs, which was incredible, and they haven’t been that dominant. But the impressive thing to me was they had to win two more games in San Jose to win that series and then they got the first one here.”

Gaborik leads the NHL in postseason goals with six. He was instrumental in helping the Kings rally against the Sharks, too. You can argue the move to get Gaborik was the deal of the year.

After Gaborik’s goal Monday, the Ducks tied the game 1-1 when Patrick Maroon scored on a 4-on-3 power play. It was the only goal for the Ducks in two periods. But the Kings had an answer, and quick, as Martinez was left open, called for a pass from Tyler Toffoli and scored to build a 2-1 lead at 9:40 in the first period.

The Kings hung on, thanks in large part to Quick in the third period. And then Dwight King scored his first goal of the season on an empty-netter.